 |
Self-serving bid to rid roads of older cars
25th November, 2007
I have to question the accuracy of some of the statistics quoted in this article concerning emissions from older cars.
While it is claimed that the emissions of new cars are 98 per cent lower than those of 15-year-old cars, I would suggest that may have been true 10 years ago, but is no longer true today.
Due to a quirk in Ontario's Drive Clean rules, I had to have an almost-new car tested with only 4,000 kilometres on the odometer. Not surprisingly, the readings were close to zero. But were the readings 98 per cent lower than those from our two 11-year-old cars?
No, and in fact, the old cars had equal or better readings, and some readings were zero.
The significant improvement in emissions occurred when fuel injection replaced carburetors, which was more like 25 years ago.
There aren't many cars that old left on the roads.
While driving an old car on a daily basis, for 20,000 kilometres per year, would cause a lot of environmental damage, the reality is most cars that old are low-mileage, well-preserved examples that are driven relatively little.
The auto industry has done a great deal to reduce emissions, but trying to label the large number of middle-aged cars as "old smokers" sounds like a self-serving deflection tactic.
Release link:
http://www.thestar.com//
|
|
